$1m Raised for Histadrut

February 14, 1972

NEW YORK (Feb. 13)

More than $1 million in cash has been raised here for the health, educational and social welfare programs of Histadrut, it was announced today at the mid-winter conference of the National Committee for Labor Israel by Bernard Jacobson, executive director of the Israel Histadrut campaign. The sum of $1,310,000 was part of a national goal to raise $5 million in 1972 for Histadrut programs in Israel.

Dr. Sol Stein, president of the Israel Histadrut Foundation, reported that during the five months of the fiscal year that began last Oct. 1, the Foundation received $.25 million in new commitments in the form of wills, bequests and gift annuities. The 600 delegates attending the conference were addressed by Sen., Fred Harris (D.,Okla.) and Mayor Eliahu Navi of Beersheba.

Harris said that Israel “must never give up its defensible borders,” and asserted that the “surest way to convince the Soviet Union of Israel’s right to exist is not only to supply American jets but also credits.” In addition, Harris said the US should assist Israel in coping with the enormous task of absorbing Soviet Jewish refugees,” and declared that Jerusalem “should never be divided again.”

Navi said that Beersheba had received hundreds of Soviet emigre families and was prepared to absorb 26 percent of all immigrants arriving in Israel during 1972. Beersheba has a population of 90,000 which it hopes to double in the next five years, mainly with immigrants from Russia and other countries. Navi said.